"I am convinced that the fight for the family, and the free citizen, and everything decent, must now be waged by the one fighting form of Christianity." - G.K. Chesterton

Ad Jesum per Mariam

...if you genuinely wish to reach a high level of prayer in all honesty and without falling into the traps that the devil sets for those who pray, SAY your Rosary everyday... St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Second Coming and The Destruction of All (Luke 17:26-37 The Days of the Son of Man)

The Proclamation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke (Luke 17:26-37)

26 'As it was in Noah's day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of man.

27 People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all.

28 It will be the same as it was in Lot's day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,

29 but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all.

30 It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of man to be revealed.

31 'When that Day comes, no one on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down tocollect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back.

32 Remember Lot's wife.

33 Anyone who tries to preserve his lifewill lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe.

34 I tell you, on that night, when two are in one bed, one will be taken, the other left;

35 when two women are grinding corn together, one will be taken, the other left.'

36

37 The disciples spoke up and asked, 'Where, Lord?' He said, 'Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.'

The Gospel of St. Luke tells us how the Son of Man will come, the
Parousia, or the Second Coming of Christ. It will be like in the days of Noah,
where the people live in sin, wickedness, corruption of mind and heart, and
full of lawlessness. God will come like a great flood, destroying everyone and
everything that is wicked.

It is like a baptism. That's why we are
called to live the baptismal promises we made - the baptism which we are
baptized. We should live blameless in the sight of God by living the
"great flood in the days of Noah" that was poured in us when we are
baptized - with water and the Holy Spirit. That's how important our living the
baptismal promises that we made. Because in the end, we do not know exactly
when the Son of Man will come, and we do not even know when our earthly life
will will end.

It is very fitting here to add the words
of a saint who said, "Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling." But we must balance it with the words of St. Francis de Sales:
"We should fear God out of love; not love Him out of fear."

The coming of the Son of Man is similar in
the days of Lot where the people are full and busy of themselves. The great
problem also was sin is reigning in them where immorality and homosexuality was
a way of living. Again, God will come and His revelation of self will be like a
raining sulphurous fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Here, we see how to
live the fire, the sulphurous fire-like grace that we received in the Sacrament
of Confirmation. The Holy Spirit will help us now to be in flames burning,
dedicated to God and His Gospel. Just like the Sacrament of Baptism, we are
much more called here to boost our all to live the baptismal promises we made
more fully.

The Gospel tells also that we must not be
attached to material possessions and the things that seems important to us. We
are called to a total detachment from things - everything that has no concern
with the coming of the Lord. We must not be like Lot's wife, who looked back,
and was turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). Again, we are called to a
total detachment from all and a total attachment to God alone.

Like the salt, we must be preserved in
sanctity and righteousness. Unlike the wife of Lot who looked back or turned
back in the sight of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we must not look or
turn back from sin, wickedness, corruption, and lawlessness once we dedicate
ourselves to God, because if we do so, we will be like the wife of Lot who
became a pillar of salt. Again, we must be like salt.

Let us live lives pleasing to the Lord so
that we will be taken by Him and not be left for destruction.

And "where the body is, the vultures
will gather." For people who are concerned with the satisfaction of the
body, succumb into concupiscence and irascible passions, like vultures, they
will gather into a body - left in corruption and full of filth, all of them
will be destroyed.

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Overheard from the Pulpit on E-mail

The Queen Mother and the King

ST. DOMINIC DE GUZMAN

"He encountered heretics on his way to France. In his opinion was that the people were not to blame - the preachers were. If there are good, orthodox preachers, then the people will be good and orthodox also. So, he founded the Ordo Praedicatorum - Order of the Preachers...."